Tokyo Vice Robbed of Emmy 2024 Nominations: Was Season 2 That Bad?

Summary

• Tokyo Vice Season 2 didn't make the list of Emmy 2024 nominees.
• Meanwhile, many other HBO and Max projects were nominated.
• Perhaps the reason is both lobbying and HBO's desire to finally get rid of the project.

The crime neo-noir drama Tokyo Vice, based on Jake Adelstein's memoir of the same name, was undoubtedly one of HBO's best projects. The story about the criminal world of Tokyo in the 1990s immediately attracted attention, and not only because a new wave of love for Japanese culture and history is sweeping the world. Instead of the polished and stereotypical image we usually associate with modern Japan, we were shown a violent underground built on drug and sex trafficking, corruption and widespread murder.

Two years after its debut, the second season of Tokyo Vice premiered in February 2024 to even more praise from both professional critics and the general public. But despite the audience's enthusiasm, fans were faced with the disappointing news that the series had been canceled. Unfortunately, Tokyo Vice's string of failures did not end there, as we now find out that Season 2 was not even nominated for an Emmy this year. Was it really that bad, according to the academics?

List of Emmy Nominees

To avoid confusion, we would like to remind you that this is the second Emmy Awards ceremony this year, as the previous ceremony was postponed from September 2023 to January 2024 due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.

The list of nominees for the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards was recently announced. Below, we'll only list the scripted series, without details about specific categories, as that would require a separate article:

• 3 Body Problem (Netflix)
• Abbott Elementary (ABC)
• Baby Reindeer (Netflix)
• Black Mirror (Netflix)
• Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO)
• Fallout (Prime Video)
• Fargo (FX)
• Fellow Travelers (Showtime)
• Feud: Capote vs The Swans (FX)
• Girls5eva (Netflix)
• Griselda (Netflix)
• Hacks (Max)
• Hijack (Apple TV+)
• Lessons in Chemistry (Apple TV+)
• Loot (Apple TV+)
• Mr & Mrs Smith (Prime Video)
• Only Murders in the Building (Hulu)
• Palm Royale (Apple TV+)
• Reservation Dogs (FX)
• Ripley (Netflix)
• True Detective: Night Country (HBO)
• Shōgun (FX)
• Slow Horses (Apple TV+)
• The Bear (FX)
• The Crown (Netflix)
• The Gentlemen (Netflix)
• The Gilded Age (HBO)
• The Morning Show (Apple TV+)
• The Ms. Pat Show (BET+)
• The Other Two (Max)
• The Sympathizer (HBO)
• Under The Bridge (Hulu)
• What We Do in the Shadows (FX)

As you can see, there were several projects from HBO and Max. Also, the list is incredibly diverse, and not all of the shows were rated higher than Tokyo Vice.

Why Is Tokyo Vice Season 2 Not on the List?

On Rotten Tomatoes, Tokyo Vice Season 2 received a 94% approval rating from critics and a 93% approval rating from viewers. This compares to 85% and 90%, respectively, for the first season. All of this suggests that audiences have embraced the continuation of the investigative story of Jake Adelstein (Ansel Elgort) and Hiroto Katagiri (Ken Watanabe) with even more enthusiasm.

However, it's important to realize that while the Emmy speaks to the prestige of a particular series and allows it to attract even more viewers, it's not always an unambiguous indicator of quality. More often than not, the Primetime Emmy Awards focus on those submissions for shows that have a high audience reach. And that's not to mention the normalized lobbying practices of the industry.

Unfortunately, it's also likely that HBO didn't want their Tokyo Vice to get much more public attention. Remember that Tokyo Vice, for all its success, turned out to be incredibly expensive and resource-intensive - the first season alone cost $80 million, despite the show's rather niche subject matter.

In other words, now that HBO has gotten rid of Tokyo Vice, it probably does not want to face the demands of fans to renew the show. And nominations and maybe even Emmy Awards would give those demands much more validity.